Sweet and Spicy Grilled Chicken

Earlier this week I had mentioned that our local town was holding it’s annual celebration. Now, while nothing spectacular when you live in a town of 5,000, the kids still find enjoyment in riding the decades old faux train cars (pulled by a golf cart) and going to the local parade filled with local businesses, the school band, political candidates and of course, horses. While one would think that the local parade is pretty harmless, one can never be so certain. Leave it to my accident prone family to actually get hurt at the parade. What started out as innocently watching and retrieving candy (more on the candy part in a bit) turned into a crying fest, goose-egg and now a bruise.

So what happened you wonder? Well we were innocently sitting along the curb watching the floats go by as my daughter was eagerly picking up the treasures being thrown to her when all of the sudden out of the corner of my eye I see candy being chucked right for our heads. Now I know I am an easy target, being 37 weeks pregnant and really unable to get off the curb by myself, but really? Throwing candy right at a pregnant ladies head? Classy. What I didn’t realize was that the candy was being thrown in my direction, but also meant the direction of my daughter (insert mom of the year comment here).

And being the awesome mom that I am you can expect me to say that I swooped in and saved her precious body from the full-sized suckers that were coming our way. O yes, not just a little Dum-Dum but a full-sized Tootsie Pop! Well you guess wrong. Like I mentioned, I deserve mom of the year award for this one as I proceeded to duck and cover my own head, exposing my daughter to the flying candy. Perfect right?

Well things didn’t turn out so well. One of those suckers nailed her right in the forehead. Yep smack-dab in the middle. With instant tears and a goose-egg, she spent the rest of the parade on my lap in tears wanting nothing to do with it. Bless her, she is a little dramatic, but to give her credit, that would hurt. Trying to redeem myself, I flung myself off the curb, chased down the float, told the grown man to take some responsibility and then marched back to my child. Okay, I didn’t do that either! Instead, the first thing that came to my mind was to tell her this is why we don’t eat candy, it just causes harm in many ways to our body….my husband on the other hand didn’t think this was an appropriate response.

We loaded in the car and headed home, candy still in hand. Now I know many of you are wondering what a nutritionist does with candy in her house. Well honestly that evening she got to pick one piece and I told her we would sort the rest in the morning. After bed I proceeded to put it all in a bowl and place it on the top shelf in our kitchen, leaving it there until she asked for it. I kind of knew she never would and ended up throwing it away. Maybe she has short-term memory loss from the sucker incident or I just got lucky but the battle was over. One piece of candy, the rest in the garbage and one happy mom. I assume I won’t be so lucky next year but we will fight that battle when it comes.

In the end, there was no major damage, just a bruise and a slightly irritated mom that the incident even happened. Maybe we should have some rules on how candy can be thrown or distributed in a parade…I guess I will leave that topic for a completely different blog. Anywho, if you go to a parade this fourth of July weekend what are your tricks on limiting the massive amounts of candy your child will receive? I’ve heard some great options like candy buy-back programs, picking X number of pieces and “saving” the rest, candy-trade ins or accidentally spilling it out of the car window on the way home (I would never do this).

And now moving on to this beauty, honey spiced grilled chicken. What better dish to serve this fourth than something fired up over the grill. While being big brat and hamburger fans, I can only do that so many times. Hence where the chicken idea came in. Something different and yet so very tasty and festive. This sweet and spicy grilled chicken takes one hour on the grill and the smell is fantastic. You don’t want to leave the vicinity of the grill while it is roasting. That baby smells good. Bottle it in a candle and I will light that thing everyday.

Grilling a whole chicken, like not cut-up, bone-in, entire chicken can be quite daunting though. That is why I recommend spatchcocking your chicken. Ba-ba-ba say what, spatchcock? Spatchcock is an actual cooking term and it literally means to level the cooking area so it is more even. Here is a great tutorial on how to spatchcock your chicken. Do it, it works and you don’t have to worry about it not cooking through, which is especially tricky while grilling. And the rub amazing. Luckily, if you mix it up, it makes extra so save it and use it again.

So go light up the grill and get this bad boy cooking. Finger licking good, that’s what it is. Happy fourth of July!

only one day

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About Alexa

Alexa is a Nutritionist currently pursuing her Masters degree in Public Health. She specializes in helping her clients to see the whole picture of health and wellness and enjoys developing healthy grain free recipes and writing about various health topics. She lives in a cornfield in Iowa with her husband Payton and their three daughters, Ava, Addie and Auden.